Thread: Near death incidents

I was shot at once.
I was held at gun point and tied up by bandits once.
I fell out of a canoe while unconcious and alone once.
I avoided a highspeed t-bone auto collision by a split second once.
Sooner or later this is gonna end badly!

Any body else?

I had a stray .270 bullet miss me by about six feet once. Someone was shooting across the swamp, the bullet hit a rock and ricocheted hitting the tree next to me. (I know it was a .270 because I know who's gun it came from. Him and I had a little talk afterward.)

I've had a number of close calls with car wrecks.

I voted democrat once.

If your gonna be dumb ya gotta be tough.. seems to be the working philosophy in my life...

Fell through a ceiling once, broke two ribs,

Jumped across a ravine over a river upstream of a killer set of falls once.. and couldn't get back across. Had to walk out on the other side for about 5 miles of bush-waking.

Avoided (rather the other guy did) a head on collision when the truck's lone single functioning brake's wheel was on pea gravel at 50 mph.

Usually I need a few drinks under my belt to get this story out of me: The closest call I ever had is being buried in a 15 ft deep trench when I was 21 years old. 2 seconds before it caved in I was laying prone on my belly trying to strap a saddle onto the water main, stood up and stepped up a bit to grab a shovel and at that point the 15 ft vertical wall behind me caved in and slammed me face first into the water main standard (a large 6" vertical iron pipe) and buried to the top of me head. I came to with a worm's eye view of the world from 6" below ground level! I spent almost 10 days in the hospital having the bones in my left cheek and orbit of my eye reconstructed, and 8 weeks with my jaw wired shut. And a dislocated shoulder from the rescue.

The part that gives me shivers and goose-bumps to this day is knowing that I was seconds before laying flat at the bottom of that hole. If I hadn't stood up when I had, instead of being buried in an upright position near the top , I would have been flat underneath a 10' pile of dirt. Mom told me then that the spirit of her father was there for me, and with out him as my guardian angel I would have been lost. That idea stuck with me. Whatever it was, it was one hell of a close call!
Shortly after that, my wife was pregnant with our first child, but it wasn't until later that I figured out that that accident was the reason I felt compelled to reproduce... and quickly!

I grew up a punk rock skateboarder in Washington DC. nuff said

Nothing too serious. I daily take one of the sharpest edges known to man to my throat. I've had a gun fire on my hip. I had a pallet load of treadmills fall off the back of a truck right next to my head. I once had my lathe grab a cloth from my hand which in turn grabbed a gouge off of the wall behind the lathe and threw it towards me. I've looked Oprah in the eye! My brother shot me in the eye with a compound bow, it glanced off as it was an extreme angle and the reason it hit me was that it got stuck on the string. Umm that's about it. Oh ya every time the buffer grabs I feel like I'm going to die. Does that count?

[QUOTE=wdwrx;627888]If your gonna be dumb ya gotta be tough.. seems to be the working philosophy in my life...



Thanks for sharing this. I'm sure it's very hard to think about.

But luckily you and everyone else is here and safe and able to share our lov for these simple yet elegant shavers.

Been shot at but the fellow missed so I don't call that near death exactly but it might qualify. I was a union ironworker doing structural steel erection for 20 years and had some near misses that could qualify. Was right there when a crane lost 300 foot of boom. They were taking down a buck hoist and it would be too long to detail but there were cars crushed all over the street and that boom sounded like some primeval creature howling as it broke apart and fell. Seen a friend fall 85 feet and land flat on his back. He lit on the wire mesh they use in airport runways and was dead in a hurry. I've walked away from a few hellacious automobile wrecks. The Lord protects drunks and fools. Sometimes anyhow.

Interesting topic on a late sleepless night, Matt. (Neither here nor there, but I recently watched Quest for Fire for the 1st time since I saw it in a theater, and thought of your avatar. Cool movie!)

I always say that every boy who makes it to 18 is a walking miracle. Having said that, I had a couple of VERY close calls on street bikes in my early 20's; there are no fender-benders on motorcycles...

-I've had a gun pulled on me on a dark street late at night.
-In the summer of '06, on a backpacking trip in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley, we (my family and I) were almost charged by an angry back-country bison bull whose dust-wallow we came upon unexpectedly.

Getting ready to leave in a little while on a mountain trip for brook trout with a buddy. The waterfall areas and rock-hopping are always a hazard; thank God for felt-soles! May you and your loved ones stay safe.